Structural and magnetic characterization of Fe nanoparticles synthesized by chemical vapor condensation process

Abstract

The structural and magnetic characteristics of iron nanoparticles synthesized by a chemical vapor condensation (CVC) process were investigated systematically by an x-ray diffraction method, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, Mössbauer spectroscopy, magnetometry and thermogravimetric analysis. Typical particle sizes were found to be in the range of 5–13 nm with uniform dispersion. The resulting microstructure of the nanoparticles correlated with parameters of the CVC process. In particular, a CVC technique was derived to fabricate Fe nanoparticles with different magnetic states, e.g., superparamagnetic, ferromagnetic, or a mixture of these two states.